


Magnetism

by Samayla



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jack/Daniel if you squint, Pre-Slash, but I purposely left it ambiguous
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-22 20:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30044127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samayla/pseuds/Samayla
Summary: Daniel is drawn to trouble like a magnet. Jack has had it up to Here, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't do anything to get him home.
Relationships: Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11
Collections: Stargate Winter Fic Exchange 2020-21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [devinsxdesigns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/devinsxdesigns/gifts).



> A pinch-hit for devinsxdesigns, who has been SUPREMELY patient and also provided [this amazing artwork](https://www.deviantart.com/devinsxdesigns/art/When-the-Sky-is-Falling-I-will-Hold-it-for-You-863908815) as inspiration.
> 
> I'm so sorry this is in pieces, but real life got in the way, as it so often does, and I'm not quite finished yet. The rest of the story should be up later this week ♥️♥️

“Watch that edge,” Jack called, for what felt like the fiftieth time since they’d arrived on this, the most inconvenient of planets. 

“For the last time, Jack,” Daniel snapped, “it’s fine! Look at the wear pattern in these footpaths!” He waved in irritation at the smooth ruts worn deep into the stone, leading right up to the stone altar and delicate-looking arc of rocks that spanned the narrower end of the canyon. Thick leather cords had been knotted around the bridge, and half a dozen sparkling trinkets dangled over the ten-story drop below. “People have been coming up here —” 

“Yeah, yeah, centuries,” Jack cut in. “You said. Just watch that edge. It’s a long hike back to the gate if something goes wrong.”

“Jack, I have seven centuries — at least! — of ritual history to record and decode here. It’s going to mean getting close to the edge from time to time.”

“I don’t care if you have a millenium of ‘ritual history to record and decode,’ Daniel. Watch the damn edge!”

Daniel rolled his eyes and returned to his sketching, but he did at least take a few steps back from the edge.

Jack sighed and tried to count that as a victory, but he knew the archaeologist would be right up to the edge again as soon as something else caught his magpie’s eye. Even if people had been coming up here for a million years, someone had to be the last one, and he’d be damned if it was going to be one of his team members.

Jack wandered over to where Carter was kneeling in the scrubby grass, doing inscrutable, Carter-y things to a complicated-looking instrument she’d brought along from the SGC. “How goes it, Carter?” he asked.

“Fine, sir. A few more hours, and I should have enough data on this planet’s magnetic field to test Dr. Lee’s hypothesis regarding the device SG-6 brought back with them. Already, my initial read-outs are indicating that the fluctuations are —” Something beeped on her little gizmo. She glanced from it to Jack and back again. “I’m sorry, sir. I —” 

“Carry on, Carter,” Jack said, secretly relieved. He’d already heard more than enough about this planet’s magnetic field during the briefing, then again as they’d hiked the two hours from the gate to inspect the mysterious religious site tagged by SG-6. The fluctuating magnetic fields had wreaked havoc with Jack’s compass, not to mention the team’s metal weapons, which had gotten heavier and lighter in turns. The phenomenon, while fascinating to Carter, had only made Jack miserable. The sooner they could get home, the better, as far as he was concerned.

He left Carter to her beeping and note-taking, and walked the perimeter of the site. Teal’c met him at the treeline, back from his latest round of recon. “Any sign of the locals?” Jack asked.

“I found none,” Teal’c answered. “There is a village a ways to the east, but it appears to have been abandoned some time ago.” He held up a tarp, bundled to form a bag of sorts. “I photographed and collected a number of artifacts for Dr. Jackson. It also appears that Major Carter is correct, and this is indeed an impact crater of some sort, albeit a very old one.”

Jack started to answer, but he was interrupted by Carter’s doohickey going off again with a high-pitched whine. “We’ve got another spike coming,” she warned, scribbling notes furiously on her clipboard. 

Jack cursed and scrambled for the clip on the strap of his P-90, not anxious for a repeat of that morning’s near-strangulation. He hit it just as his weapon seemed to triple in weight. Freed from its strap, it crashed to the ground at his feet, sending up a little cloud of dust. Teal’c just flexed, managing to keep hold of his weapon near-effortlessly while Jack struggled to hang onto his belt, so his sidearm and pocket knife wouldn’t drag his pants down.

As quickly as it had manifested, the sudden increase in magnetism dissipated again. Jack adjusted his pants and reclaimed his P-90 from the dirt with as much dignity as he could muster. “Right,” he muttered, spotting Daniel once again far too close to the edge of the canyon. He was lying on the edge, trying to get a good look at the shiny bits dangling under the bridge. “Daniel! For crying out loud — get away from that edge! All it’d take —” 

Sam’s device screeched again suddenly.

“Carter?”

“This can’t be right, sir. I don’t —” She cut herself off as the piercing shriek jumped up into canine octaves. “Get out of there!”

Jack and Teal’c both lost their footing as the planet’s magnetic field fluctuated wildly, tearing at every scrap of metal on their uniform. Jack’s P-90 was ripped out of his hands as he went down, but Teal’c roared in pain as his arm was caught and pinned beneath his own. 

“Daniel!” At Carter’s choked scream, Jack fought the strangling chain of his dog tags to turn his head. He managed it just in time to see the cliff go. Daniel seemed to hang in the air for a moment, like a character out of the Looney Tunes, a look of almost comical surprise on his face, before he joined those seven centuries of ritual history in toppling down into the deep canyon below.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapters... I just want to be sure to get something up for you guys. You've been so very patient with that absolutely terrible cliffhanger.

The magnetism held until black spots began to crowd in at the edges of Jack’s vision, but then it cut off abruptly. He could hear Carter suck in a desperate breath and knew she’d had the same trouble he had. “Metal off,” he coughed, fumbling with the clasp on his dog tags. He called out for his team members’ status even as he scrambled on hands and knees toward the cliff’s edge. 

“Fine, sir,” Carter rasped, sounding anything but as she stripped off her dog tags and unloaded her pockets.

“I too am well, O’Neill,” Teal’c said, flexing his fingers carefully. He winced but declared, “I do not believe my arm is broken.”

Jack took his word for it, bigger concerns on his mind. He neared the edge, sending several smaller pieces of stone skittering down. 

“Careful, sir,” Carter called. “It may not be stable.”

“Daniel!” Jack dropped to his stomach and pushed forward with just his toes, careful not to dislodge any more debris. “Daniel!” 

At first, all he could see was the rubble, huge boulders and smaller shards of stone, heaped at the base of the cliff and scattered on several smaller ledges on the way down. The remains of that delicate bridge that had so fascinated Daniel were lying in the shallow pond at the bottom, those pretty little decorations still glinting in the sun. Then the crunch of gravel alerted him to his teammates’ approach. “Stay back,” he ordered. He couldn’t lose anyone else over the edge. 

“Can you see him?” Carter asked. 

The desperate worry in her voice forced Jack to focus. He was the CO. It was his job to keep a level head. “Not yet,” he said, twisting to make eye contact with first Carter, then Teal’c. He noticed livid bruising on Teal’c’s forearm. If that wasn’t broken, he’d eat his hat. Either way, it made his next decision easy. “Teal’c, I need you to head back to the gate and alert the SGC. Best case scenario, we’ll need a medical team standing by. More likely, we’ll need a full med evac — plastic or fiberglass gear only. Carter, wrap up his arm. Then I need you to go through our supplies. I need some sort of rappelling gear, splints, bandages… whatever you think might help us.”

Both nodded and set to work at once, leaving Jack to continue the search for Daniel. He didn’t see any sign of him at the bottom, so he risked leaning a little farther out so he could scan the edge of the crater.

A glimmer in the sun on a ledge about a third of the way down the crumbling wall had his heart rate surging with hope — Daniel’s glasses. Jack squinted, searching for any sign of camo print and wishing, not for the first time, that he could tag every member of his team with blaze orange. Finally, he spotted him a short distance away from the glasses. His uniform was covered in dirt and a number of smaller rocks, but it was definitely Daniel. 

He didn’t stir at Jack’s shout — unconscious then. 

Jack refused to even consider the alternative. 

“How’s he look?” Carter called. 

Jack shimmied back to join her on more stable ground. “He’s in one piece, more or less, but it looks like he’s out cold. What’ve you got?”

“I found some rope in our packs, but some of the rappelling hooks and clips are warped from the fluctuating magnetism. I wouldn’t trust them, sir.”

“I’ll do without,” Jack answered. “Won’t be the first time.”

“Sir, I think we should wait for help from the SGC. Without proper gear, and with Daniel unconscious —”

“Negative, Carter. It was a two-hour hike out here. Even if Teal’c can manage to shave some time off of that, it’ll still be nightfall before a full evac team can get here. I won’t risk a repeat of that collapse in the meantime.”

As if to prove his point, Carter’s gizmo whined again — mercifully back in the range of human hearing, though it was no less alarming — and several more chunks of rock tore loose from the edge.

“Carter, correct me if I’m wrong, but rocks aren’t usually affected by magnets.”

“There must be metal in the soil up here,” Carter answered, slipping almost unconsciously into scientist mode as they both shimmied back out to the edge to check on Daniel. By some stroke of luck, the largest rocks had missed him, but Jack didn’t intend to test that luck any further.

“Teal’c says you were right about the impact crater, if that makes any difference.”

Carter nodded, half to herself. “Perhaps an iron-heavy meteorite, drawn in by the fluctuating magnetic fields…”

Jack did not like the sound of that. “Carter, are you saying this maget issue can get strong enough to drag in space junk?”

“Theoretically, sir, it’s possible.” She glanced around at the ground they were sitting on. “As large as the central crater is, there is no way of knowing how far the ancient debris field extends beyond it. This whole area could be unstable.”

“That settles it then,” Jack declared, grabbing one of the coils of rope. “We’re getting Daniel up here, and we’re going home. We’ll meet the evac team on the way back to the gate. See if you can rig up some sort of sling using the tarp. I’m going to see about finding the safest route down.”


End file.
